Old Growth is a unique trait in Teamfight Tactics Set 18. It rewards you for fights where enemies die near your board, by turning those deaths into permanent Health for one champion.

The trait is tied to Maokai, a 5-cost champion who also carries the Juggernaut trait. The figures below come from Patch 18.4b data, last refreshed around October 13-14, 2026.

What Old Growth Does

The core effect is simple. Whenever an enemy within 3 hexes dies, your strongest Old Growth champion gains 30 permanent maximum Health. A hex is one tile of the board grid, so 3 hexes covers the area around the unit rather than the whole board.

Three details matter here:

  • Permanent: the Health stays for the rest of the game, not only for the current round.
  • Maximum Health: it raises the Health cap, which makes the unit tankier.
  • Strongest Old Growth champion: the bonus goes to one unit, not to everyone with the trait.

Several stat sites list the trait with scaling numbers: ranges of 3/10/10 hexes and Health gains of 30/100/1000. Their pages also show current stack values of 30/100/1000. The sources do not explain what each number in the sequence is tied to, so the 30 Health within 3 hexes remains the baseline description. The larger values suggest the trait can scale up sharply in certain conditions.

PivotTFT's Set 18 traits guide lists Old Growth at a single breakpoint, which is the number of units needed to activate a trait. In practice, you activate it by fielding Maokai.

Maokai, the Champion Behind the Trait

Maokai is a 5-cost champion with a range of 1, so he is a frontline unit that fights in melee. That fits the trait well. He stands where enemies gather and die, which keeps his Health growing.

His ability is called Sow the Seeds. TFT Codex lists these Patch 18.4b values, shown per star level:

  • Passive: after he blocks 650/650/300 damage, a sapling jumps toward a nearby enemy and deals 80.5/80.5/862.5 magic damage.
  • On death: 3/5/10 saplings jump out.
  • Active: deals 69/69/1150 magic damage and restores 330/400/2000 Health plus 10/10/100% of his missing Health.

Older figures on other sites differ slightly, for example 650/300/200 damage blocked and 77/77/825 sapling damage. These are likely from earlier versions of the set, so the Patch 18.4b numbers are the safer reference.

How the Two Pieces Work Together

Old Growth makes Maokai bigger as enemies fall, while his kit turns damage he absorbs into sapling damage. A larger Health pool lets him block more damage, and blocking more damage means more sapling triggers. The trait feeds the ability, and the ability helps kill more enemies.

How It Performs and What to Watch For

Two trackers give a recent picture of Maokai and the trait on Patch 18.4:

  • SeeMeta (38,464 games): 4.16 average placement, 17.78% pick rate, 54.98% Top 4 rate and 19.05% win rate for Maokai.
  • TFT Codex (Old Growth breakpoint 1, 267,211 games): 4.19 average placement, 54.0% Top 4 rate, 20.0% win rate and 18.7% play rate.

An average placement around 4.2 is close to the middle of the pack in an eight-player lobby, and a Top 4 rate near 54% is slightly above half. The numbers suggest Old Growth is a solid, widely played option rather than a dominant one. They also show a notably high win rate of about 19-20%, which fits a late-game 5-cost carry that is hard to reach but strong once it comes together.

Some practical limits apply:

  • Cost: a 5-cost champion usually arrives late, so the trait has less time to stack Health.
  • Positioning: the 3-hex range means the fight must happen near Maokai. If enemies die across the board, he gains nothing.
  • Single target: only the strongest Old Growth champion gets the Health, so the bonus cannot be spread out.
  • Data gaps: the sources do not fully explain the scaling values, and numbers may change in later patches.

Conclusion

Old Growth is a snowball trait. Each nearby enemy death adds 30 permanent maximum Health to your strongest Old Growth champion, and Maokai is the unit built to use it.

Current Patch 18.4b data points to a steady performer with a high win rate. If you plan around him, protect his positioning and check the latest patch notes, since the exact numbers may shift.